1. Field of Invention
A steerable surgical suture passer providing single hand operation to selectively direct the operation tip in an upward or downward direction to reduce the degree of collateral tissue damage during the use of the instrument, the suture passer providing a shaped handle for ambidextrous use and defining an inner socket, an integrated inner member defining an upper trigger and lower trigger at a proximal end, a pair of resilient intermediate parallel shaft members and a distal operational tip, the inner member pivotally secured within the inner socket by a single pin and a rigid hollow shaft support tube connected to the handle through which the resilient parallel shaft members are directed, allowing the surgeon to steer the operations tip and required when performing a surgical procedure.
2. Description of Prior Art
The following U.S. patents and publications were discovered and are disclosed within this application for utility patent. All relate to surgical instruments with some of them using a steering mechanism in some form or manner.
Several of the surgical instruments are shown by example, which may be adapted to the presently disclosed technology are provided for a brief reference as to the types of surgical instruments for which the improvements to the art as surgical instruments for sale and use by Inlet Medical Inc., disclosing suture passers, sutures, ligament graspers, tie knot pushers, clamps. Those references have not been included for review due to their having been removed from public access and thus not included by reference. They still have made reference to small surgical instruments to reduce the amount of collateral damage to surrounding tissue caused by their insertion into a surgical site. Other identified surgical instruments are suture punches and penetrating suture graspers. These prior surgical instruments are further identified as the SCORPION™, made by Arthrex of Naples, Fla., and the EXPRESSSEW™, made by Mitek of Raynham, Mass.
The same inventor as in the present application is the inventor of record in U.S. Pat. No. 8,475,436, recently issued. This patent disclosed a prior art bi-directional surgical instrument disclosed a static handle, a base anchor bracket, a trigger mechanism defining a front trigger extension and a rear trigger extension which direct the sliding of a pair of upper and lower resilient members which are attached at a base end to a sedge shaped portion which is attached to the trigger mechanism, each resilient member attached at respective distal ends wherein the trigger mechanism moving in one rotational direction bends the attached distal ends in upwards while the trigger mechanism being moved in the opposing direction bends the attached distal ends downwards. This device serves the same function as the present steerable suture instrument but it requires more component parts in its disclosed embodiment, a more complicated assembly of the disclosed components and a significant greater expense in production of its disclosed embodiment than the present disclosed suture instrument, which only has four primary component parts with a simple single pin assembly.
A steerable catheter, identified in U.S. Pat. No. 8,376,990 to Ponzi, discloses two puller wires connected to compression coils with each of the two wires connected to a tip on a far end and a non-descriptive steering end with the other ends connected to a “bi-directional control handle” referenced by other patents. A very similar device is disclosed within U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,968 to Lundquist, which discloses another steerable catheter. A pair of scissors within a laparoscopic instrument is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,350,391 to Iacovelli, with one wire operating one of the pairs scissor members and another wire moving the scissor head at a pivot. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,501,654 to Faillia, an endoscope has a bendable end that provides a single spring member that curves in a singular direction when released from the inside of a stiff shaft with a control handle that extends the single spring member and retracts it from the stiff shaft within which it is withdrawn and extended.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,473 to Gatturna discloses a device for securing and positioning a wire to a needle, including a probe wire through a cannula needle and more particularly, towards a locking and positioning device for a needle wire localizer. There is a J-curved tip next to the point of the needle. Another similar needle guide is indicated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,874,376 to Hawkins, Jr. An earlier suture passer is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,497 to Paudler, which has a plurality of elongated flexible members attached at two common ends forming dual piercing tips, with the suture placed between connected flexible members as the device is inserted into a surgical pathway, with the members bending around curves through manual manipulation.
A ligating device is shown in Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0079911 to Muramatsu, which demonstrates an introduction tube inserted into a location within the surgical site with at least two manipulating wires movably inserted within the tube and at least two clips having a proximal end portion with a pinch section at the end of the tube. The wires manipulate the clips within the tube with the clips having the ability to grasp tissue and pull it within the tube. A suture passer with a curved suture carrier with a sharpened tip, shown with two suture passers, allow for the upward insertion of sutures from below and insertion level for passing and directing the sutures upwards through tissue after piercing the tissue from above.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,719,924 to Crittenden, a steerable guide wire provides the means to adjust the curvature of the tip of a surgical instrument during a cardiovascular surgical procedure. An inner tubular member rotating inside an outer tubular member provides the means for rotation of a surgical instrument, with an arthroscopic grasper mounted on the end of the outer member, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,318,528 to Heaven. A pull cable inside a catheter inserted into an artery and extended into the heart, specifically during a transmyocardial revascularization procedure, is use to steer the tip of the instrument through the artery, the pull cable at the handle portion of the instrument as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,530,913 to Giba. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,381,205 to Thommen, a spring elastic guide wire within a tub having a spiral section displaces a distal end of a flexible catheter tube.
None of the above noted patents, nor any others observed by the applicant, demonstrate a shaped handle, an integrated shaped inner member defining an upper trigger and lower trigger and further extending a pair of resilient parallel shaft members terminating into an operational tip, the inner member pivotally secured within the handle by a single pin and a rigid hollow shaft support tube connected to the handle through which the resilient parallel shaft members are directed, the activation of either or both of the two triggers causing the operational end of the surgical instrument to bend in an intended direction and degree, steering the operational end of the surgical instrument through tissue, the instrument being turned to steer the operational end in any intentional direction.